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- "Él puso el libro sobre la me…
33 Comments
137
Puso is the third person singular past tense of poner. It's a grave word (the tonic syllable is second to last) ending in a vowel, so it doesn't have an accent.
I am going to subscribe to a theory that there may be several ways the same sense may be conveyed in English, and that it may not be possible to cover all possible ways by a "code" or a "database". So whenever it is Spanish to English. I let it slide ... :) ... as long as I got the general sense of what is being intended by sentence - without a context.
So I plod on until I can collect enough flying hours that will allow me to hold a somewhat amusing to a native, perhaps, but a conversation nevertheless. A "conversation" may be the time to trim the exact meaning and application of usage of words and phrases. :)
Haha you are spot on! Love the attitude! Because at the end of the day, we're trying to learn a new language... so if we're able to translate successfully, regardless of it the app gets it right, then we're making progress in the right direction!
I can't wait for the day where I can hold a solid conversation! (even if I am speaking partially broken Spanish haha)
137
"Tabla" can also mean table in the sense of "the periodic table" or "table of contents", but not in the sense of "we ate dinner at the table".
292
I totally agree, but Duo doesn't seem to be aware of these "nuances" and so it's probably best to go with something right-ish in order to get to the other side. Sometimes, I spend more time wondering how Duo would like me to phrase things in English than I need for the Spanish.
137
'a' is a preposition and has no place in that sentence. It would be like saying "He put the book on to the table".
Why Sobre and not arriba? A friend told me "sobre" is like "put it over the table", and arriba is "put it on the table". is that right?
Then, another duo sentence i think went like "Ella puso los platos en la mesa" and they translated it to "she put the plates on the table". Why didn't they use "sobre" there? Since both sentences imply someone "putting" something "on a" table. Is it cause los platos is plural? Im confused.
137
"sobre" means (as an adverb) "on top of/over/above". "en" means "on/in/at".
"arriba" means "up", and by itself it can only be used as a noun. However "arriba de" for example means "above/over", but is a lot more colloquial.
"en la mesa", "sobre la mesa" and "arriba de la mesa" ("arriba la mesa" is grammatically unsound) both mean "on/on top of/over the table", but the former two sound more proper.
The object being singular/plural has nothing to do with it.